My CD Collection

Since I always post my J-Pop and K-Pop CD collections on the blog, I thought wouldn't it be fun to post all the other CD's I own. This collection is one that I have been building since I was little and has grown and shrunk in size over the years. Sometimes I clear out titles because I don't enjoy them anymore or no longer have room and need to make room for new additions. Like I had every So Fresh from its inception in 2000 up until about 2004 when I stopped buying them. Also had other Australian compilation CD's such as Pepsi Chart Hits and 100% Hits. The latter ones are no longer around but So Fresh is still going strong in 2023. All the CD's will be organised into artists where possible like my other collection posts and I will try to note whereabouts I purchased the album if I can remember all the older ones. Let's get into it!

First off is my Sophie Ellis-Bextor collection and I would say that she is my favourite solo artist. Trying to collect her entire discography and it is going quite well. I had Shoot From The Hip on order at JB Hi-Fi but turns out it was deleted so my order had to be cancelled. Need to order one from Discogs along with Song Diaries and her Kitchen Disco - Live at The London Palladium which was released last year. This isn't available at my local CD store sadly but it seems easy to get online. She did announce a new album scheduled for June and cannot wait to get that one. Not really focusing on collecting Sophie's singles and I only buy them if I come across them which is only ever Murder On The Dancefloor. That single is all over the op-shops on the western side of my city, must've been popular out there. Out of these I got Wanderlust, Familia, Make A Scene and Songs From The Kitchen Disco from JB Hi-Fi. Read My Lips and Murder On The Dancefloor single were op-shop finds and Trip The Light Fantastic I found at a random CD stall for $2 that was set-up by my old work years ago.

Next is the Kaiser Chiefs albums who I've been collecting since they first came out. I remember being so excited for Employment as I had seen their music videos on Channel V and was obsessed with their music. Currently my favourite album is Duck however I was super into Yours Truly Angry Mob for years. Now you might notice that I have two copies of Souvenir and that is because one copy I got from the UK as a gift and some of the tracks skip. I kind of just put up with it as I had the songs on other CDs however I found the Australian version of the album on clearance for 99 cents so I brought it. And now I have two! So one copy of Souvenir, Stay Together, Off With Their Heads and Education Education Education & War came from some UK video game site that also sold CDs and they were a Christmas gift. Employment and Yours Truly came from JB Hi-Fi many years ago when they were released and Souvenir and Duck were more recently purchased there. The Future Is Medieval I had to get through Ebay as I couldn't find it at JB's and I think I brought it from a seller in New South Wales. Hopefully the group will release a new album soon as Duck was super good and I'd like to see a follow up.

Now for some good old compilation albums and some of these are super old. I brought the Wayne's World soundtracks back in the 2000's when we travelled interstate. We didn't have JB Hi-Fi in my state yet so it was super exciting to find CDs for $9.99 and a bigger range than the usual shops we had at home. The Blues Brothers and A Night At The Roxbury are more JB Hi-Fi purchases and the Roxbury is the best album ever but I might be saying that as that movie is one of my all-time favourites. It is just so hilarious and the 90's music is amazing. The Ultimate 90s compilation was one that we were throwing out at work so I took it as it was a favourite of mine on our old CD player. The Legally Blonde 2 soundtrack was one I brought from Amazon US back in the day and I've always thought about decluttering it. I never listen to it however it looks so pretty!

Starting off with the St. Trinians soundtrack which is one of my favourites and it was well worth the purchase. I brought it from the UK as it wasn't available here and I absolutely love this movie. The soundtrack is the perfect companion to the movie and has some great Girls Aloud songs on it. The Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi soundtrack came from Amazon in the US and I'm always surprised that it is a thing. It just looks rather cheap with the design but it is full of amazing songs from the cartoon. The Barbie Slumber Party Mix Volume 1 was a compilation released here in 2001 and had many more releases after this. I never had any of the others which was weird as I love Barbie and CDs. Guess I was more into So Fresh. This CD has all the bops from the late 1990's/early 2000's and I'm sure if I played it at a party nowadays, everyone would be excited. The Josie & The Pussycats soundtrack is another top notch soundtrack and I swear I always skip to the DuJour songs as they are hilarious. Another one of my favourite movies and I had to get this from Amazon US. There was an anniversary vinyl released of this recently however it was quite hard to get as my friend had to wait ages to get hers. The last soundtrack I have is a funny one with the Shake It Up soundtrack. Now I loved this show when it was on Disney and I never knew there was an actual physical CD. I had the soundtrack digitally until one day we were cleaning some stuff up at work and someone across this randomly. I immediately claimed it and it was in perfect condition. Even comes with a DVD to learn all the dance moves!

Spice Girls time! Been into the Spice Girls since they started and my copies of Spice and Spiceworld are the original ones I got when they first came out. I used to have their third album but lost it many years ago. The middle CD is their greatest hits which I found in an op-shop hence the terrible condition, The bottom two are new additions from last year and I couldn't help myself getting these. I've mentioned them on the blog before and the story is that I didn't originally get the Spice 25 one as it was quite pricey then the Spiceworld one was announced. It was priced a tad cheaper so I ended up pre-ordering it. Then I was like well I cannot have one without the other so I ended up with both. You do get extra discs in these anniversary additions and there are some great unreleased tracks on there. Hoping they will re-issue Forever for the 25th in a few years time as it would be great to have the set.

Now onto my favourite boy band of all time which is Five! They actually toured Australia last year and I went to their concert which was the best. Totally worth it and I never thought in a million years that I would actually get to see them live. Previously I have owned more Five CD's but I decluttered some singles years ago due to space limitations. The top three are albums which I've found in various op-shops and you get some great bonus songs with these. The bottom left is a greatest hits album which I got from JB Hi-Fi as an import and the bottom right is a greatest hits I got from Amazon UK. Funny how we never had a greatest hits released in Australia considering the group was successful here and we have a good market for CD sales.

Another large artist in my collection is The Living and the reason for this is that I was a massive fan during my teenage years and managed to collect quite a few items. First photo is of the singles I have from the group and the top row is from a CD sale I went to years ago. The bottom row all came from Sanity where I brought them whilst waiting for a movie to start. Even paid $2 for most of them!

Onto the albums now and I have six out of their eight albums. The ones I am missing I do own digitally as I went through a small period of not buying CDs and missed out on them. These albums all came from different sources; top left and middle are from a double pack I brought from BIG W, top right and centre are from the CD sale, middle left is from a friend and all the others I brought from JB Hi-Fi over various years. 

A few random pieces in The Living End section now starting off with their greatest hits release because every group has at least one. I've got both the DVD and CD plus I have a giant poster of this album release as well. If you want to get an idea of the sound of the group, this is a good CD to pick up and features their earlier releases. I used to be really into the bonus disc you get in the CD which mainly contains cover songs. The other photo shows two promotional Living End discs I have and these I got at the CD sale. One is a radio promo disc for their cover of Rising Sun which is a pretty cool thing to own. The other is a bonus disc that was included in an issue of The Rolling Store magazine. I used to own the magazine and I'm guessing it got decluttered at some point.

One of my favourite bands ever is Franz Ferdinand and weirdly enough I've always had their music digitally so I don't own many CDs. I think because it was so trivial to own digital music years ago, I thought it was cool to have it that way instead. One day I'll get all their albums and I actually did get Always Ascending brand new the other week. So just imagine it is in the photo haha. The DVD was a funny one as I brought it at Sanity a billion years ago and it has the dumbest case ever. It is one of those weird square-oval shaped ones and the discs sit on top of each other. I had never seen anything like it when I brought it and it still weirds me out. Always feel like it is going to break if I use it or something.

A bit of nostalgia here with my The Donnas albums and I wish I had all their other albums. The top two I brought at JB Hi-Fi when they first came out and I was so excited back then. Used to listen to these over and over again. The bottom one I got from Amazon US as you couldn't buy it here in Australia and I occasionally listen to it. Searched up some of their albums on discogs and the shipping is insane! I swear the shipping just drastically sky rocketed on there recently which is understandable with the current state of freight logistics. However all the shipping to Australia is above $20. Crazy times and it really makes CD collecting much harder.

The Hives are a band I used to be obsessed with back in the 2000's. I saw them at the Big Day Out lineup one year and I was hooked. Like Franz Ferdinand, this was a band where I owned all their music digitally. Years ago I had a bank account that gave you credit to a music service called Bandit.fm each month if you made deposits to it. So I would end up with all this credit and brought heaps of digital music. The service eventually closed in 2016 and ended up having mainly just Sony branded stuff. CD wise for The Hives, I have two singles which I got from a CD sale years ago and one album which I found in an op-shop. Was quite surprised to see that someone around here actually knew who they were.

These Shonen Knife albums are random ones I just picked up at JB Hi-Fi super cheap. Whenever I see good artists in the clearance section, I feel like I need to save them. I have their Happy Hour album digitally and that was the inspiration to purchase these as I enjoyed that one.

These two Blink 182 albums kind of annoy me for silly reasons. The California one is because after I brought this, I discovered there was a deluxe one with extra songs at the music store months later. Should've brought that one! Oh well I really like this album so that's good. The Greatest Hits one is funny because of the giant Sanity price. Ugh these were the worst thing about that store. I don't recall if this came in plastic packaging as I brought it forever ago and that Sanity is long gone. Not just because they shut down, it shut in my local shopping centre ages ago.

Red Hot Chili Peppers were a group that myself and one of my school friends were really into. She was obsessed with and probably still is! I actually had more RHCP albums over the years but slowly decluttered them. The Greatest Hits is a decent album and the usual best of that I collect for most artists. I remember when Stadium Arcadium came out and we were so pumped for it. It even still has the BIG W sticker on it! That is actually quite cheap for a double album and BIG W always had these silly decimal prices. Nowadays they don't sell CDs and even went out of DVDs recently. I've seen this greatest hits at my local music store and it is now nearly $30! CDs have increased in price in the last few months and last time I saw Stadium Arcadium before it went Out Of Stock, it was quite expensive.

A few random selections in the next photo starting with Spiderbait's Greatest Hits. A memorable band for many Gen X and Millennials with Black Betty being quite a commercially successful song. JET was another popular band of the time and were usually compared to the Beatles. We play their music quite often at my work and everyone is always singing along to it. I enjoyed some of their songs from their follow up albums and it would be nice to find those CDs. The Cure and The Clash greatest hits albums are ones I picked up at JB Hi-Fi (all four of these albums came from there) because I liked the artist. The Cure is the most recent one and the others I brought years ago.

I don't buy or listen to a lot of current artists and the only one I'm interested it is Dua Lipa. I didn't know much about her and never realised that I listened to her music all the time at work. So I decided to purchase her albums one day during a CD sale. Quite enjoyed them and Future Nostalgia is my preferred one. So good and I listen to it all the time. Hopefully she brings out a new album soon as I would love to hear more.

I buy a lot of random CDs as these three are more random purchases. There was a period where I was really into the Pet Shop Boys and would buy any that I saw. Pretty sure these are out of print now as I haven't seen them on the shelf and there are newer greatest hits from the group out. I have a few of their albums digitally as well and I quite like their Please album. The Jamiroquai album was a random purchase as I thought it sounded cool. I had most of their stuff from compilation albums over the year so I wasn't missing much from this.

These Go-Go's albums I collected for fun and they are just nice to have in the collection. The Vacation one I got from Amazon US ages ago and listen to it quite often. The other two were imports from JB Hi-Fi and I mainly got  them to complete the collection. They are extended editions so you get heaps of extra tracks on them.

Going to admit that I was a huge Big Time Rush fan back in the day. I just found their TV show so hilarious to watch and I still watch it nowadays. It was my favourite Nickelodeon show out of whatever was airing at the time and I made sure to collect their albums. Their self-titled album I actually own two versions as I brought the UK one from the UK when it came out then a few years ago, I found the Australian one in the clearance bin at my music store, so I saved it. Both have different track listings so that was nice that they weren't identical. Elevate and 24SEVEN I got from Amazon US and I wish I had the extended version of Elevate that has the extra tracks. Used to listen to Elevate on loop when it came out and 24SEVEN isn't my favourite. Hopefully the boys bring out a new album soon now that they are active as a group again.

Speaking of albums played on loop, Love Angel Music Baby was definitely one of those. This album was so hot back when it came out and I loved everything about it. I went off it a bit for a few years however not I'm all about it again. Don't have any other Gwen Stefani albums besides her newer one. I just random brought this at JB Hi-Fi as I liked one song from it and don't listen to it much.

These S.O.A.P. CD's were a fun experience to find. I had totally forgot about this group until a few years ago and made it my mission to get the albums. The bottom single was easy as I got that off eBay quite cheap and in Australia. The albums were harder and now I somehow have two of the same one. I first got the Japanese version of the album as you got bonus tracks and I wanted that OBI. The other version was a funny story of I was in a local op-shop and saw it on the shelf. Thought that I would get it so I would have the Australia edition. Get home only to discover that it wasn't the Australian version, but a special Malaysian one! Even has the original price stickers on it. Maybe one day I'll come across the Australian one and I can added another one to the collection.

These two CDs are quite special to me and took a while to find. Scandal'Us was a pop group formed off the Popstars TV show back in the 2000's. I always liked their two singles they released but only had them on compilation albums. I made it my mission to find the CDs one day and luckily found the single at an op-shop. After never seeing it for ages and finally coming across it, I see it all the time now. Same thing with the album! I could never find it anywhere and was considering buying it online. Then last November, my power was out for a few days due to a storm and went to an op-shop to kill time. And there it was! I couldn't believe it and now it's super annoy as I see it everywhere now! I went op-shopping the other day and saw it five times. Amazing album that I highly recommend and such a shame they never did anything else besides one album and two singles. I have yet to find the Make Me Crazy single and might end up getting it online to complete the set.

My lovely *Nsync collection that I wish was so much bigger. I just cannot find much of their stuff here and you only ever see the same stuff in op-shops. I've been looking everywhere for the version of their first album with the extra tracks but always find the standard one. No Strings Attached is a total banger and one of the best albums in my collection. I see this one a lot in op-shops and I wish I could find Celebrity. That is the one I really want and you never see it. The Essential one was from JB Hi-Fi and is your typical essential branded album.

Britney Spears is an artist that I randomly collect and it is mainly because I want all her songs. I've had more of her albums before but decluttered them. I even own two copies of her first album for some reason. I often find her albums in op-shops then purchase the brand new copies if the album gets a reissue.

Backstreet Boys are another favourite of mine and you've probably noticed by now that I like a lot of boy groups from a certain time period haha. I don't actively collect this group but will pick up titles if they interest me. I see them occasionally in op-shops but never Black and Blue which is my current project. I really want that one as I like the song The Call from it and you can always find great b-side tracks on their albums.

More random sets of albums now starting with Lady Gaga and Madonna. I enjoy Lady Gaga and I've got her early stuff digitally. When Chromatica came out, I was like yeah I'll get the deluxe edition as it will be nicer than the standard. Like it's fine and a bit boring. I thought the photobook would be way better however there is nothing really in it. The Madonna greatest hits was one I had since I was a kid and I liked her music so it stays in the collection. The Weird Al, B-52s and Durand Duran best of albums were JB Hi-Fi purchases and nice albums. I really like Duran Duran but hear this album all the time at work so I don't listen to it much. The Avril Lavinge one is my original copy of her first album and yes I played it all the time because I thought it was so relatable and unique. 

I found this Atomic Kitten CD at an op-shop near my work and picked it up as they were super popular back when I was a teenager. I would listen to their music and only really had their songs from compilation discs. That was the main way to get music back as it was cheaper than buying albums and you would get lots of good songs on one or two CDs. The S Club 7 was a bit of funny one as I had an original one when it first came out and got rid of it once. Then I was thinking about where it went and then ended up finding a copy in a op-shop. I've had more S Club 7 singles in the collection over the years but they have been decluttered. Human Nature is one of my favourite albums and a total pop banger. Listen to this all the time and worth the listen if you like pop music. Been searching through op-shops for more of their albums however I always see this one. The Samantha Jade album was a random purchase from JB Hi-Fi as it looked fun and I liked her version of Hot Stuff. Lastly a random John Mayer album because I forgot to include it in a photo. I like this album and it is a lovely album to listen to when you just want to chill out.

Honestly I'm not a huge vinyl collector and don't understand the appeal. Like they are so expensive and are annoying to store. And you need a record player to even use them and most people I talk to that buy records don't even listen to them. I couldn't imagine spending $70 on something and not using it for the main purpose. These are the only vinyls I own; Duran Duran's Notorious and Franz Ferdinand Do You Want To single. The Duran Duran one was my mums and I took it when I sold her record collection for her years ago. I picked up the Franz Ferdinand one at a CD sale because it looked cool and I liked the group. My local music store sells records but I'm never drawn to buying them. Some look cool but the price is so steep it doesn't make random purchases worth it.

And that is my CD collection all done! I'll probably buy more titles before the month is over and this list will be pointless. If I get anything, they will be included in my monthly favourites posts. I do have a few on pre-order at JB Hi-Fi that I am looking forward to such as the re-issue of Sound of the Underground from Girls Aloud. So pumped for that one! For this style of post, I will update it each year like my K-Pop and J-Pop collection ones. Hoping you enjoyed reading this and found some new artists to check out. I'd recommend checking out the Australian artists as they might not be well known outside of our county. Definitely give a listen to Scandal'Us and early Human Nature releases if you like pop music and The Living End if you like heavier stuff. I'm sure people know who the Living End are as they are quite successful overseas. Anyway I'm off to trawl though op-shops for more CDs!